Mother & Daughter Outing....only without my girls...

Our church usually has a mother and daughter banquet but this year we opted for an outing. An outing that would take us to Fort Wayne, Indiana for the once a year Vera Bradley outlet sale. What a great idea..... only none of my sweet daughters could go! Not Christi, not Nancy, and not Leah. That was a real bummer for me but I went just the same and ended up having a nice time. We drove nearly three hours to get to the coliseum in Fort Wayne and upon ariving we spied a long line winding around the outside... Why we wondered?

The parking attendant told us the line was to get inside the coliseum to start shopping and that the wait would be approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Then he asked a silly question...."Did we want to wait?" We drove three hours to get there ~ what was three more hours??? Sure, we'd wait. He just shook his head and took our money. Melissa is seen below joining the last of the line. Once inside there was plenty of room to shop, lots to shop for and a large number of shoppers....... I was impressed to see a few men. I wanted so badly to interview just one of them to find out what posessed them to attend, or what their wife promised them to get them to come. Maybe next year I'll take a mic, wear a name tag, and make it look good and do just that!

I want you to picture a super Walmart store completely empty. Nothing inside at all. Now picture turn style type waiting..... like you do at Kings Island, working your way back and forth to get to the front of the line to get to ride the beast. Now picture thousands of women toting pink bags filled to the max with Vera Bradley bargains..... Okay; you've got it. The check out line was just that and it took us right at one and a half hours before reaching the area where the registers were. Only in America would we wait so long in line to spend our money! My first trip through I managed $121.63. Only to discover that some behind us had patterns that we didn't see. Upon asking we found out that more had been put out......... yep, you guessed it. Back in we went, although I was the only one who purchased more...... my second trip was not so large, only $58. Ooooh, but just check out all the cool stuff I bought! The other ladies did well themselves! Susan was the top spender!Monica and her mom Cindy didn't do so bad either! Melissa and Abby fared quite well and Abby kept mentioning the fun we were all having! Sarah mostly shopped for her mom Debbie who couldn't come but she was a great one to help carry the heavy pink bags for us older folk.... Thanks Sarah!

We ended the day with a dinner at a local Olive Garden where we had show and tell in the parking lot while we waited yet another hour for a free table. Oh but it was fun, and yep we're planning to do it all over again next year! However............ we're thinking of going up the night before and camping in the parking lot!